Here's English Plantain, Plantago lanceolata. I see it everywhere but have never put a specific name to it. Years back in my groundskeeping days it used to bug me--a powered reel mower would pass right over the seed stalks, leaving them poking up and ruining the smooth appearance of a lawn.
From First Principles of Agriculture:
"This plant is much like the common plantain, from which it differs in its much longer and narrower slightly hairy leaves, and its shorter and thicker seed spikes. It is perennial, and is apt to be very abundant in upland meadows, clover fields, and poorly kept lawns. It is especially to be dreaded in red-clover fields, intended to be cut for seed, since the seeds mature with those of the clover and are of so nearly the same size and weight with them that the two can not be easily separated."
From A Manual of Weeds:
"A much more pernicious weed than its broad-leaved relatives ; they seem to prefer yard and roadside, but this species overruns meadows and pastures. Cattle feed on the plant without any apparent dislike, though it is stringy and somewhat bitter and detracts from the quality of the dairy products."
Goff, Emmet S., Mayne, D.D. First Principles of Agriculture. London, 1904. 128-9. Web. Google Book Search. 17 Sep 2009.
Georgia, Ada Eljiva. A Manual of Weeds. New York, 1914. 393. Web. Google Book Search. 17 Sep 2009.
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